Innocent car crime victims in Sussex are paying almost £1 million a year to get their vehicles back from the pound.

About 12,000 motorists face bills of at least £105 to collect their cars after they have been towed to pounds under police instructions.

From April to December last year, Sussex Police recovered more than 9,000 stolen, abandoned or crashed cars.

Each would have cost the owner, mostly innocent victims of crime, a minimum of a £105 recovery fee, plus £12 a day storage, a total of more than £900,000.

Recoveries are running at the rate of more than 1,000 a month, with nine privately-run car pounds collecting thousands of pounds in charges.

Earlier this week, we reported how youth worker Alan Seabrook, 31, was urging drivers to boycott charges after his car was stolen.

He said: "Just what is going on here? It seems Sussex Police are giving these car pounds carte blanche to print money.

"It's a double whammy for drivers. Someone is clearly making a lot of money out of this. These charges are the last thing victims need."

Pensioner Robert Arnold, 66, was billed £144 after his car was stolen from his East Grinstead home, set alight by vandals and then taken to a pound.

He said: "This is quite clearly big business and it's the victims of crime who are suffering."

The latest to suffer is shop owner Roger Hayward, who called police when he spotted his stolen van on Brighton seafront.

The van was stolen from Freshfield Road, spotted in Marine Parade and taken by the police to a pound 15 miles away in Bolney.

Mr Hayward said: "My wife Eileen rang the police and they said they needed to fingerprint it so it would be taken to a pound in Moulsecoomb. Then we discovered it had been taken to Bolney."

His wife said: "When my husband went to get it he was told he would also have to pay an extra £12 because the vehicle had been there on Sunday. He refused because the pound wasn't even open on the Sunday.

"We were never told we would have to pay to get the van back.

"I was so shocked and upset by this because we were the victims of a crime and yet we have been made to pay for it.

"We feel we have been penalised for being good citizens. We did the right thing and it cost us £105."

Mrs Hayward, of Warren Road, Woodingdean, said they were later told "off the record" they should have just taken the van home from the seafront.

Tim Rose, vehicle recovery manager for Sussex Police, said the van needed to be in a secure area for forensic tests and could have been taken to Bolney because the Brighton pound was full.

He said: "We would never recommend people drive a car that has been stolen until it has been checked for roadworthiness."

Sussex Police insist no one is cashing in on drivers' misery.

Mr Rose said: "There is no mark-up on the price. It's a fee laid down by the Government.

"I think the operators don't get any money for 20 to 25 per cent of the vehicles recovered."

The scheme is managed by a subsidiary of the AA but Sussex Police collects £5 from each £105 charge, covering the £100,000 a year its vehicle recovery service costs to run.

Mr Rose said car crime had fallen by seven per cent since the scheme was introduced 18 months ago.

David Palfrey, operations director for Brighton-based recovery company Ontime Glyde, would not discuss his firm's profits.

But he said: "We had more complaints in the past, when the police didn't look after the vehicles when they found them, than we do now."